See how one creative couple added character to their Ontario digs on the cheap

Charm School

Charm School

Welcome to a master class in making over your home. Your instructors: Chris and Todd Kauffman, who used lumber, paint and old-fashioned elbow grease to build character in their cookie-cutter Oshawa, Ontario, three-bedroom, built in 2003. During the five-year process, Chris lovingly recorded each project on her blog, Just Beachy. Assured by her readers and daughters Mason, 12, and Sophie, 9, that her inspired changes truly made the grade, Chris turned her hard-won knowledge into a career in interior design. Here, the lessons she learned along the way.